Team

Bhavana is a financial services consultant with over 19 years of experience of which 16 years have been in microfinance, SME lending, and project management. Her core expertise lies in due diligence and assessment of MFIs, SME banks and other FIs; and design and implementation of large-scale financial sector programmes that seek to enhance access to finance for low-income households and the bottom of pyramid markets; and project management. The current focus of her work is in managing large-scale access to finance projects in several countries. Bhavana has managed and evaluated projects financed by the World Bank, IFC, DFID, IFAD, ADB, AfD, and FMO in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and Vietnam. She has also designed a number of financial inclusion programmes funded by international agencies and was a core team member for implementation, monitoring & supervision of microfinance programme of the apex wholesale microfinance lender in India.

Examples of her recent works include:

Regulatory Assessment for Digital Financial Services in Bangladesh, funded by Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformation: to carry out a comprehensive assessment of regulatory framework for Digital/Mobile Financial Services to support the project in identifying key priority areas and suggest policy/regulatory strategy the project should embrace for the duration of the project. (2016 – on-going)

Consultancy Services to Develop a Financial Inclusion and Literacy Strategy in Qatar, funded by Qatar Central Bank: conduct a survey on all sectors of Qatar’s population to understand the level of financial inclusion and literacy in the country; identify gaps in each sector as well as the supply and demand side factors with respect to access to finance. (2016-ongoing)

Retrospective Impact Assessment of Financial Sector Deepening Trust in Tanzania, funded by Financial Sector Deepening Trust, Tanzania: evaluating the impact of programme as a whole at the macro level as well as evaluating select individual projects financed by FSDT to strengthen the macro level interventions undertaken by institutions like banks, MFIs, SACCOS etc. (2015-2016)

Advisory Services to Microfinance Institutions in Myanmar, funded by IFC: provide technical assistance to microfinance institutions aiming to improve financial access to low income households in Myanmar by enhancing the capacities of its microfinance sector at the meso and firm levels. (2014- ongoing)

Programme Management of the Microfinance Expansion Project (MEP) – a USD 22 mn. Project, in Papua New Guinea, funded by ADB in Papua New Guinea: building the capacities of MFIs and MSMEs in the country besides undertaking activities to promote the overall growth of microfinance sector including advisory support on policy and regulatory framework for microfinance. (2013-2015)Before joining MicroSave, Bhavana worked with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) where she played a pivotal role in the design and conceptualisation of National Micro Finance Support Programme (NMFSP). She was also a member of the Design team and Access to Finance Consultant for the DFID funded Poorest States Inclusive Growth (PSIG) programme. She holds an MBA with specialisation in Finance from the University of Lucknow in India.

Before joining MicroSave, Bhavana worked with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) where she played a pivotal role in the design and conceptualisation of National Micro Finance Support Programme (NMFSP). She was also a member of the Design team and Access to Finance Consultant for the DFID funded Poorest States Inclusive Growth (PSIG) programme. She holds an MBA with specialisation in Finance from the University of Lucknow in India. She is fluent in English and Hindi.

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